IELTS Listening: Note completion

Note completion

Complete a set of structured notes. The workhorse of Part 4.

You answer with

Typed words and numbers

Typical group

4–10 questions; Part 4 is often a single 10-question set

Answer order

Follows the recording, always

The instructions, word for word as the test writes them

Complete the notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

What this task is

You get the notes a good student would have taken. Headings, sub-headings, fragments, with gaps where the key facts belong. The talk fills them in.

The headings are not decoration. They mirror the structure of the talk, which makes them signposts. Lose the thread in a six-minute Part 4 lecture and the next heading is where you rejoin it.

The traps

These are built in on purpose. Know them by name and half the danger is gone.

Paraphrase at the gap

The audio says "prohibitively expensive". The note says "too ......". From Part 2 onward the words around the gap are rarely the words you hear. Only the answer itself is.

A blank mid-line, not at the end

The gap sits where the answer belongs in the sentence. So keep listening after you fill a blank. Do not switch off once it is done.

Part 4 runs straight through

No mid-part break. One preview, then the whole lecture. Miss a gap and the recording does not wait. Let it go and catch the next one.

What to do next time

Use the preview to read the headings first, then the gaps. Knowing the shape of the talk is worth more than memorising ten blanks.

Predict the word class of each gap. "Too ......" wants an adjective. "First proposed in the ......" wants a decade or a place.

If a gap goes past you, drop it instantly. One lost answer is one mark. Three lost answers while you replay it in your head is a disaster.

Now meet it under a clock. Start a free mock. Every note completion question you get wrong comes back with the sentence that proves the answer, and the reason the trap was tempting.